Wrestling continues to find its way in South Dakota

Programs working with fewer numbers than in past

Programs working with fewer numbers than in past

April 03, 2007

By American News Sports Staff Despite wrestling with declining school enrollments, the sport of wrestling seems to be going strong in South Dakota schools. "In South Dakota, wrestling is on the rise," said Aberdeen Central wrestling coach Toby Bryant. "A lot of interest is being shown. The youth numbers across the state are up. The key to the programs is that middle-school age kid. We have to keep them in the environment and hanging around the sport. Ultimate fighting on TV has helped get wrestling a little more popular. Wrestling tactics are used in it." This is a busy weekend for the state's wrestling community. Bryant has nine Aberdeen Central wrestlers in the State A Tournament at the Sioux Falls Arena today, and 224 of the best wrestlers in South Dakota are in Aberdeen for the State B Tournament at Wachs Arena. Both tournaments begin at 10 this morning. Wrestling success: Bryant said wrestling is a great sport. He should know; he is one of the sport's most-decorated high school athletes in South Dakota. Bryant started wrestling for the Pierre high school varsity team as an eighth-grader. He won three state titles and later wrestled at South Dakota State in Brookings, where he battled injuries throughout his college career. "Wrestling can be used as a tool to teach kids a lot of life lessons," said Bryant, who is in his third year as head wrestling coach at Aberdeen Central. "It's about the work and the discipline it takes to make weight. You'll never face anything tougher than the grind of a wrestling season and the valleys and peaks you go through physically and mentally. You're built to handle stresses." Collegiate level: Northern State University wrestling coach Pat Timm agreed. His university is one of five in South Dakota who offer wrestling. The others are Augustana College, SDSU, Dakota Wesleyan University and the University of Sioux Falls. "That says a lot for South Dakota wrestling to have five colleges who offer the sport," said Timm. "So there are plenty of opportunities for student-athletes in South Dakota who want to go on to wrestle at the college level. And we certainly have quality wrestlers in South Dakota, but sometimes it is just hard to land them at your university. Sometimes, it is a dogfight." The Northern State wrestling roster is dominated by South Dakotans, who make up 86 percent of the Wolves wrestlers. "There are kids out there to recruit, but because of the lack of population in our state, it is sometimes hard to find kids, especially quality kids," said Timm, who won a high school state wrestling championship at Huron and was a two-time All-American at SDSU. "We don't have the population that we would like to have; therefore, we don't always have the number of wrestlers we would like to have." Falling numbers: Todd Jenkins agreed. The 1981 Clark High School graduate and former wrestler is now one of the coaches of the Clark-Doland-Conde-Willow Lake wrestling co-op, which had 20 athletes out for the team this season. The team has three athletes in Aberdeen today competing in the State B tourney. "I think there is not as many kids who come out for sports in general as there was 20 or 30 years ago," Jenkins said. "I don't know exactly why that is. We, as coaches, have our own theories. I grew up on a farm when I was in school, and I know ... a lot of farm boys like me who wanted to play sports and not work on the farm all the time. But the numbers in rural South Dakota, including the number of farms, are getting smaller and smaller." More and more small schools are combining forces to form wrestling teams, as well as other athletic teams, Jenkins said. He said when he was in high school at Clark, the enrollment was around 250 compared to about 100 today. "We were going to have wrestling regardless in Clark because of our tradition in the sport, but we would've had a lot of holes in our lineup," said Jenkins. "We went 13-7 in duals this season by co-oping with Doland-Conde and Willow Lake. If not for the co-op, we might've won only one dual on our own. It worked out good by combining. There wasn't a dual that we weren't in this season. We lost five duals by less than three points. We were competitive and we like that." : Wrestling coaches like Jenkins say there are just a lot more options for high school students these days. Those options include things like other sports, jobs and video games. Schools, especially the smaller ones, also suffer some from the wrestling equation they are asked to solve. "We now have 14 weight classes to fill; we had 12 when I was in high school," said Jenkins. "When your enrollment is going down and the number of weight classes increase, it can be tough." Some in the sports community say high school and college wrestling might suffer because of burnout. It is common to find high school seniors who have been wrestling for more than 10 years. But people like Coach Timm from Northern don't buy into the burnout theory. "You might get tired of working all the time, but when you are working toward the good things wrestling can provide you, you want to keep working hard and moving forward," said Timm. "Each athlete approaches the sport of wrestling different. For some when they are very young, wrestling every weekend is almost too much. Others can't get enough of it." Timm said team sports are a better fit for some athletes rather than an individual sport like wrestling. "Wrestling might be the toughest of the individual sports," said Timm. "In the end, there is no one to blame for a loss but you. That can be a pretty harsh reality for an athlete, or even people in general. Wrestling is very tough not only physically, but mentally. Some athletes may not be able to handle the strain that wrestling can put on a person. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out to be a sport for everyone."